Feng Bao in film and television dramas
Eunuchs are a special product of the ruling structure of the ancient Chinese "family world" dynasty, which is the supporting and subordinate to the imperial palace and harem. Although the supreme imperial power gave the necessary honors and benefits to those who were eunuchs, due to the particularity of their status, people of this class were never able to walk in front of history in a dignified manner, and in essence, they could only be vassals and funerary goods of the feudal dynasty.
The influence and role of eunuchs will also undergo profound changes as dynasties continue to change. In the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch group embarked on a leap-forward path of growth. Although the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang made strict regulations on the duties of eunuchs in order to restrict eunuchs from interfering in politics, the original intention of letting go of imperial power and expanding imperial power facilitated the rapid rise of the eunuch clique. For example, the establishment of JinyiWei, East Factory, West Factory, Si Li Supervisor, etc., in order to get rid of the interference of the cabinet and the civil official clique, so as to facilitate direct service to the imperial power, the heads of these institutions are almost all eunuchs, secretly appointed by the emperor of the current dynasty, coupled with the fact that most of the Ming emperors are lazy and absent, making the eunuch clique more crazy to interfere in politics and abuse obscenity. Famous people include Wang Zhen during the Orthodox Period, Cao Jixiang during the Tianshun Period, Wang Zhi during the Chenghua Period, Liu Jin during the Zhengde Dynasty, and Wei Zhongxian of the Tianqi Dynasty, all of whom left a strong mark on the road of the decline of the Ming Dynasty and played the role of a gravedigger who fell under the Ming Dynasty.
There was only one person, who received praise as a eunuch from the Interior Minister of the Ming Dynasty, and later generations honored him as a politician and artist. He was the Bingbi eunuch and palm seal eunuch Feng Bao of the Longqing Dynasty and the early Wanli Dynasty.
Feng Bao's ancestral home was from the Hengshui people's clan in Hebei Province, when he was born, because there is no historical record of why he entered the palace, only because he wrote well, which was deeply appreciated by the Jiajing Emperor, and was selected into the study room, and soon promoted to the eunuch of Bingbi. In the first year of Longqing, he was the governor of the East Factory and the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and he had real power. In the sixth year of Longqing's promotion to the position of Celebrant of Ceremonies, until the first ten years of the Wanli Dynasty, his status continued to rise, and his real power was temporary, and he was also the general inside and outside. Feng Bao once had his own signature on the collection of "Qingming Shanghe Map", and his full position was "the governor of Qincha, dongchang, and the eunuch in charge of the imperial ceremonial supervisor", the si li supervisor held the power of the governor, the governor Dongchang held the power of life and death, and Feng Bao was the first eunuch of the Prominent Position of the Ming Dynasty.
As their status rises, people will magnify their abilities and roles, feel that they can control everything, and swell to the point of really thinking that the world cannot do without themselves. So there is a saying abroad that if God wants to destroy anyone, first make him crazy. Most of the ming eunuch groups could not escape this law, wang zhen, Liu Jin, wei Zhongxian. But Feng Bao jumped out of this magic circle, and he wrote his relatively complete life with the realm and pursuit of a politician. It can be said that Feng Bao is a model of the Ming Dynasty eunuchs interfering in politics, and the image of a eunuch with morality, deeds, and positive pursuits.
Feng Bao in the palace (film and television drama)
Feng Bao had enough principle to ensure the direction of the eunuch's interference in politics. Feng Bao has a profound cultural foundation and a strong ability to distinguish between right and wrong. After he was designated as the full-time eunuch of the Wanli Emperor, he did not blindly obey and accommodate the little master for his own interests, but strictly required the little emperor according to the traditional etiquette system. He not only accompanied the emperor to learn cultural knowledge, but also strictly required the emperor to obey the etiquette and understand the principles of being a king and a saint. There were officials in the cabinet and the Hanlin Yuan who collected the white lotus flowers and double white swallows in the courtyard and sent them to the emperor to play, but Feng Bao immediately dissuaded Zhang Juzheng to take good care of his subordinates and not to use some strange things to please the emperor, so that the emperor was greedily distracted and affected growth. Once, when the Wanli Emperor was flirting with a palace maid in the palace, when the emperor had just reached adulthood, Feng Bao saw it and reported to the emperor's mother, Empress Li, that Empress Li also did not accommodate the Wanli Emperor, and asked Zhang Juzheng to prepare a "crime against himself" on behalf of the emperor, and punished the Wanli Emperor to kneel at the Cining Palace for three hours. Feng Bao's belief and preservation of orthodox culture determined the principle of justice for his eunuchs to intervene in politics, and he would not make a mistake in direction in safeguarding the overall interests of the imperial court.
Feng Bao has a high personal quality, which determines the standardization and civilization of his way of doing politics. Feng Bao is a typical cultural person, he is not only familiar with traditional classics, but also has a high artistic attainment in calligraphy, music, collection, etc., and has a strong spiritual pursuit in the world. He wrote well, not only understood music theory, but also made his own musical instruments, with a strong literary style. Therefore, Feng Bao, as a eunuch, had his own way of interfering in politics, and in the position of the governor of the East Factory, there was no phenomenon of deception, torture to extract confessions, or indiscriminate killing of innocents. The first assistant of the cabinet, Gao Gong, had always been at odds with him, and when Feng Bao had the opportunity to be promoted to the position of eunuch of the Palm Seal twice, Gao Gong recommended others, but Feng Bao's way of fighting back at Gao Gong was still very elegant. Emperor Longqing died of illness, the eight-year-old crown prince Zhu Yijun ascended the throne, the then head of the cabinet Gao Gong sighed for the imperial court, mourning "ten-year-old prince, how to rule the world", Feng Bao deliberately parroted and learned tongues, changed to "arch the prince as a ten-year-old child, how to be the master", the semantics completely changed, turning Gao Gong's worries into dissatisfaction and reprimand, causing panic in the empress dowager and the emperor, and Gao Gong was subsequently removed from his post and returned to his hometown for the elderly. In the Wang Chancellor incident, although Feng Bao had framed and conspired, after being questioned, he could also know that he had made a mistake and conceded defeat, and did not stubbornly deny it, reflecting his good personal qualities.
Feng Bao's big-picture view boosted wanli's new policy. Different from the routine of ordinary eunuchs pleasing Shengshang and only caring to coax the emperor to be happy, Feng Bao regarded the emperor's personal gains and losses with the future and destiny of the country and the interests of the imperial court as a whole, and he fully recognized and understood the strategic significance of Zhang Juzheng's reform, so he actively supported Zhang Juzheng's reform. On the one hand, he guided the Wanli Little Emperor to promulgate the reform policy in a timely manner, and on the other hand, he used the power of sitting in the inner part of the city to dredge and guide the six departments of the three provinces and the six sections of the emperor to adhere to the new policy and ensure the results of the reform. In particular, Zhang Juzheng's "examination method" was promoted, and Feng Bao played a key role. The results of the "Examination Method" were finally approved by the emperor, and after Feng Bao consulted with Empress Li, he reported to the emperor to inform the world. Feng Bao's overall view of the situation was also appreciated by the emperor, and the Wanli Emperor successively gave him a number of ivory medallions, on which were engraved the words "Bright and Just", "Erwei Salt Plum", "Ru Zuo Boat", "Fish and Water Meet", "Wind and Clouds", etc., affirming Feng Bao's positive contributions to the imperial court.
Feng Bao artwork
Of course, some historical researchers deny Feng Bao's image, which is not unfounded, after all, Feng Bao has many places that have been criticized. For example, he is very greedy for money and good goods, accepts bribes in large quantities, scavenging for works of art, seeking official positions and titles for his brothers and nephews, buying real estate, building tombs for himself, etc., the ugly behavior and bad habits of feudal bureaucrats can be found in Feng Bao.
He inscribed a motto for himself: "Treat things too cleanly, Homo sapiens and treasure the glory", which means that there is no lack of philosophy. There is no absolute blackness in all things in the world, and there is no absolute whiteness, and people are the same, there are no good people in the absolute sense, and there are no bad people in the absolute sense. A eunuch who did not have much dignity and was the most likely to leave a notoriety, Feng Bao did have a good performance, so much so that the "History of Ming" made an evaluation of him as "literati style and Confucian demeanor".
#历史上没有祸乱朝堂的知名太监有哪些 #